These Apricot-Glazed Carrots with Ginger and Curry are another great side dish option that I'm adding to our growing list of Carb-Conscious Thanksgiving Recipes. This recipe wowed me so much that I know I'll make it all during the year whenever I want a carrot dish that's a little fancier than usual.

I took the leftovers from this when I went to make lunch for my dad, who's definitely not a fan of most vegetables, and he loved this flavorful recipe for carrots. The secret ingredient here that makes this work for South Beach Dieters and low-carb eaters is the sugar-free apricot preserves, but if you're not limiting your sugar, just make it with regular apricot jam. There's plenty of flavor here without the cilantro if you're not a cilantro fan, but cilantro lovers will enjoy the cilantro with the other flavors here.

Peel carrots and slice on the diagonal in slices about 1/4 inch thick. When I got down to the thicker end of the carrot I cut them in half and then sliced so the slices were all close to the same size.

Heat olive oil in a heavy frying pan, then add the minced ginger and garlic and saute about 1 minute. Add the curry powder and saute 30 seconds more.

Whisk in the chicken stock and apricot preserves and cook until they barely start to simmer. (Don't worry if this looks a bit lumpy from the apricot preserves.)

When the broth mixture is simmering, add carrots, stir several times to coat with the mixture, then cover and let simmer until carrots are barely tender-crisp.

While carrots are cooking, wash, dry, and chop the cilantro if using. If you don't like cilantro you could use basil, or just skip the herbs.

When carrots are tender-crisp, stir in chopped cilantro, season to taste with salt and fresh ground black pepper, and serve.

Apricot-Glazed Carrots with Ginger and Curry (with or without cilantro)
(Makes about 4 servings, but can be doubled with a larger pan; adapted from Carrots with Curry and Cilantro, a recipe by Mikal Altomare from Albuquerque, New Mexico, which appeared in Bon Appetit in October 2000.)

Use a large chef's knife to finely mince the ginger root and garlic. Peel carrots, then cut into diagonal slices about 1/4 inch wide. (I cut the larger ends of the carrots in half and then sliced so all the slices were about the same size.)

When the broth mixture is simmering, add the carrots, stir several times to coat carrots with the mixture, then cover pan and cook until barely tender crisp. (The original recipe said 6 minutes, but I cooked mine for about 8 minutes.)

While carrots are cooking wash, dry, and chop the cilantro if using. When carrots are tender-crisp, stir in chopped cilantro, season to taste with salt and fresh ground black pepper and serve hot.

I saved the leftovers from this in the fridge overnight and reheated them the next day at my dad's using a microwave, and they reheated beautifully.

Using olive oil and sugar-free apricot preserves will make this recipe suitable for phase 2 or 3 of the South Beach Diet or other low-glycemic diets, but limit carrots to 1/2 cup serving if you're on phase 2. If you're avoiding artificial sweeteners, just use no-sugar-added apricot preserves. This is probably too high in carbs for stricter low-carb eating plans.

I chose the South Beach Diet to manage my weight partly so I wouldn't have to count calories, carbs, points, or fat grams, but if you want nutritional information for a recipe, I recommend entering the recipe into Calorie Count, which will calculate it for you. Or if you're a member of Yummly, you can use the Yum button on my site to save the recipe and see the nutritional information there.

More Tasty Side-Dish Carrots:
(Recipes from other blogs may not always be South Beach Diet friendly; check ingredients.)

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Carrots are one of the foods I love raw, but do not love when they're cooked unless they are combined with other strong-flavored foods like sweet potatoes. I think the apricot jam would provide enough balance for my taste buds, though, so I'm going to give cooked carrots another try!

Sigh. This looks divine. I would love to make things like this, but I’d be the only one to eat them! My dad can’t stand carrots. Sigh. Therefore, if I were to cook it, I’d eat the whole dern thing alone. Sigh.

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